With over 20 years of experience covering the Steelers for the Observer-Reporter, Dale Lolley will let you know the insider scoop. Dale can also be heard on the Steelers radio network pre-game show on WDVE-FM game days and Tuesday nights from 6 to 8 p.m. on ESPN 970-AM and WDVE during the season as a host of the Antonio Brown Show. Follow him on Twitter at @dlolleyor

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Preseason schedule released

The Steelers will play one nationally televised preseason game during the 2011 preseason, a Thursday night matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, and will also host the Atlanta Falcons, the team announced today.

The Steelers will open the 2011 preseason on the road vs. the Washington Redskins, the fifth straight preseason matchup between the teams at FedEx Field. The Steelers are 5-13-1 all-time in the preseason against the Redskins in the preseason series that started in 1967. The game will be televised locally on KDKA-TV.

The Steelers host the Eagles in a nationally televised contest on Thursday, Aug. 18 (Week 2), at Heinz Field. The game will kick off at 8 p.m. and will be televised on FOX (locally WPGH-TV). It marks the first preseason matchup between the teams since 2008.

Pittsburgh plays its second of back-to-back preseason home games with a Week 3 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons, which will be televised on KDKA-TV. The two teams have not played a preseason game in Pittsburgh since 1978. The Steelers hosted the Falcons in the 1998 preseason in a game played in Morgantown, W.Va.

The Steelers will conclude the preseason on the road vs. the Carolina Panthers, the ninth consecutive year the two teams will play in the preseason finale. The game also will be televised locally by KDKA-TV.

The times and dates for the three games to be televised on KDKA-TV have yet to be finalized.

As for the preseason games, the teams used to make their own preseason schedules. But now, with the NFL network and such, I believe the league does a lot of it with some input from the teams on who they'd like to play.

When the teams made the schedule, they picked close trips who weren't in their division. Hence, Buffalo, Washington, Philly and Carolina being the Steelers' preseason opponents so often.That's why the Steelers weren't happy with the NFL for scheduling Denver for them last year.

Actually, Philly is farther away than Cleveland, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Baltimore and, believe it or not, Washington - depending on how you drive.

As an aside, a few years ago, a few of us media types were walking into a bar in Denver and the guy at the door asked to see our IDs. When he saw we were from Pennsylvania, he said, "We just kicked your baseball team's ass." Indy is pretty much a wash with Philly in terms of distance.

It took me a minute or two to realize he was talking about the Phillies. Didn't have the heart to go back over and tell him that Philly is another world away from Pittsburgh and nobody in Pittsburgh cares are about the Phillies.